For pro-life work to be truly effective it must rely on the grace of God. While we work to save the lives of children, we must rely on the pillars of the Eucharist and Mary’s intercession. We must incorporate the sacrifice of the Mass and receiving Jesus’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in all our efforts and consecrate our every act to Jesus through Mary. (This is why it had been our goal for so long to bring Our Lord in the Eucharist to Planned Parenthood- something we got to experience with such joy this summer!)

If we want to fight for the Gospel of Life, our pro-life activism must openly share the Good News of the salvation that is found within Christ’s Holy Catholic Church with everyone we can! We must talk about the most important issue we can address with anyone, the salvation of their soul, while we seek to change minds on the preeminent social issue, abortion.
If we want to truly love the least of these in our preborn neighbors, we must first place ourselves above all else where the babies need us most urgently, the places they are being killed. This is everything the Holy Spirit so clearly convicted my sinful heart of when I founded Catholics for Life in 2021. Since having my sister Rachael join me and taking our apostolate full-time in 2023, we have witnessed God work miracles of grace through us!

As of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus this June, there is a Christian on the sidewalk every hour the two central Ohio abortion facilities are open. Every single mother and anyone else entering and leaving the facility is met with the love of Christ, prayer, and the offer of help. Greater Columbus Right to Life, Created Equal, and individuals join us in this mission. Each week, Catholics for Life’s two staff and volunteer recruits cover over 50 hours on the sidewalk. If we maintain our presence, we will have well over 2,000 hours praying outside abortion facilities in 2025. Our sidewalk team sees that when we are present, an average of more than 1 out of every 50 mothers do not go through with an abortion appointment! In October, it was 1 out of 25! Here are just a few of the mothers and children God has used us to reach:

• A young woman who had taken literature from us on her way in, ran out of the building before collapsing to her knees in the parking lot weeping. We prayed a whole rosary while the couple talked in the parking lot. Shortly after we finished the rosary, they walked to the pro-life pregnancy center!
• We saw a car with a rosary on the rearview mirror and two Our Lady of Guadalupe stickers on the windshield pull into the driveway that Your Choice Healthcare is connected to. We tried to tell them about all the free help that is available before pointing to the stickers of the “Virgen de Guadalupe” pregnant with our Lord Jesus on their windshield. They agreed that the grace of Jesus and prayers of Mary would provide for their little family. They never came back for the appointment they scheduled!
• When she finally came over to us, Julia immediately started crying. She was praying on her way to the abortion. As soon as she walked in the pregnancy center with us, she prayed a beautiful, heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving. As she left after her ultrasound, she told us, "I have so much peace, so much hope, so much joy! I cannot wait for tomorrow to have a new day with my baby! I thank God that He knew my heart, that He heard my prayer. I got to see my baby, and I got to hear my baby's heart! I never want to see this place [Planned Parenthood] again! I hope God repays you for your work here!” A few weeks later, her boyfriend proposed; and they are now married!
• Erica told our Outreach Assistant Rachael that she was going to have the abortion until she found out that she was having twins. Rachael beautifully remarked that those two siblings actually saved each other’s lives!
• We had a couple sit in the parking lot for 30 minutes as we prayed for them. They never went in!
• Two girls could not find Your Choice Healthcare. We gave them literature and explained that we know many people who regret their abortion. The friend driving yelled, “It's a sign!” We expressed how it is a grace from God that they cannot find the facility. That He is giving her another chance to do the right thing and love her baby. After finally driving to find the abortion facility, they immediately came back down the driveway and let us know that she was keeping her baby. They were going to the pregnancy center! “Katherine” was in joyful tears!
• “Mariana” had just left her consultation appointment. She did not have a job. She was in debt with two months of unpaid rent. Our volunteer Sandra directed Mariana’s mind and heart to the grace and provision of God. She gently helped Mariana see that abortion was really killing a child, just the same as killing a born baby would be. Sandra got Mariana dinner and took her to a perpetual adoration chapel to sit before Jesus, Our Eucharistic Lord. Sandra even brought Maria to work at her cleaning business and split her own income with Mariana. After her visit for an ultrasound to see her baby, Mariana chose life for her baby and now has a job!
• When we met “Mary,” we learned she had recently immigrated to America with her son from Brazil. She had just left an abusive relationship. Her morning sickness was so terrible that she could not work. She had sold her car to pay for an abortion. As the days went by though, we never heard from her. It was the evening before her abortion, and we were losing hope. As a last-minute effort, we reached out to friends of Mary who we knew were against the abortion. We met with her and arranged a meeting with the priest who speaks Portuguese. He ministered to Mary in the most Christ-like way we have ever seen. The next day, Mary canceled her abortion appointment. The Brazilian community rallied around her. Her debt is paid. She has her car back, a job, and a new apartment. Greatest of all, she returned to Mass after many years and is thinking about having her children baptized.
• Twice we had a couple visit the pill-only facility and talk to our counselors there before leaving for the surgical facility as they were too far along for a pill abortion. When they arrived at Planned Parenthood, they encountered more of our volunteers! One of the couples turned away without ever going in! The father of the other couple got out of his car to hug us as he was desperately trying to talk his wife out of aborting their baby!
• Two women never went in the building. The pregnant mother said, "I was going to have an abortion but now I'm not!" Her friend exclaimed, "It was probably your prayers that changed her mind!" Praise God! 
• A woman pulled into Planned Parenthood at noon one day to abort the child living within her. It was her second visit. Her husband didn't want the abortion, but she felt completely overwhelmed with motherhood and their three small children. She asked God to show her sign if she was to turn away. Our volunteer Renee was that sign for her. She let Renee take a picture of her as she and her baby went home to their family!
• Mom M was a teenager who showed up for her abortion appointment at 18-weeks-pregnant. She watched a video of how her baby would be killed and went for an ultrasound at the pregnancy center. Even after this, she tried to reschedule her abortion 3 times! One time she forgot her ID, another time she was too late for the appointment. By the third try (now over 19 weeks), she had to watch her younger siblings for her mother during the appointment time. This is God’s providence at work because of the power of prayer! She finally said she could not stop thinking about what abortion would do to her baby and chose life!
• A counselor was feeling so defeated and was wondering if it was worth it to go to the facility. She has to drive over an hour to come. She spoke to a couple that decided not to even go into Planned Parenthood and went to the Women’s Care Center instead. They left with baby items and never returned to the abortion facility.
• A man showed up to schedule an abortion for her girlfriend but agreed to talk to us. After hearing about help, seeing photos of babies who were victims of abortion, and listening to how God’s grace is there, he proclaimed that he is taking his girlfriend to the pregnancy center instead! “Maybe you changed my mind!”
• A couple traveled from a state where abortion is nearly banned to abort their baby. A friend came with them but was against the abortion. She got information from us and talked the mother out of the abortion! We saw them off as they started the long trip home ready to love and protect their baby!
• A car with four generations left the abortion facility with the great-grandmother of the preborn baby proclaiming, “My grandbaby isn’t doing it! She is due in July!”      
                                                                                                                                                May God be glorified and praised! These are only a sample of some of the people who we saw leave the abortion facility without going through with an appointment from our 800 facility outreaches this year! We saw 43 mothers turn-away and confirmed that at least 35 more babies were spared from abortion! We have now seen a total of 72 babies rescued and over 100 other mothers turned away! We gave information to over 500 people at the facility this year including reversal information to 33 mothers who had just taken the abortion pill, and the Gospel and healing information to 23 parents whose babies had already been killed. We helped 6 mothers with refunding their money paid to the abortion facility, meals, gift cards, or bills. Before we do this, we are very intentional about assessing the needs of the mother and making sure she is choosing life for her baby- or babies in the case of two mothers of twins that we helped financially. We also held 11 street evangelizations to share the Gospel of Life and the salvation that Jesus offers all of us in His Catholic Church, performed 11 trainings, and recruited over 100 new volunteers (some from 9 new parishes). Yet only around 50 volunteers pray at the facilities weekly or monthly. I currently cover between 20-30 hours on the sidewalk each week.
   
    Next year, we hope to find the dozen prayer partners we need to commit to have at least two Christians on the sidewalk during all open hours. This will free up our staff from multiple shifts per day and allow us to be able to fill in at the facilities whenever we are needed. With that goal accomplished, we can lead more street evangelizations with a pro-life focus to change minds on abortion and to turn hearts to Jesus. We hope to soon have a weekly presence on college campuses and/or busy urban areas around central Ohio. We can only rid our culture of abortion if we convert our culture to Jesus Christ!
   
    We are praying that in 2025, we can conduct several trainings around Columbus, host a weekend of missionary efforts for Catholics all over the diocese, and go on a pilgrimage to pray for an end to abortion. We have also developed our own literature and signs. With these available, we would love to equip people in other cities across America to help cover their facilities in prayer and lead effective evangelization. We are very grateful for those outside of central Ohio that support our apostolate; and if there is any way we can help you fight the scourge of abortion in your city, we want to be able to do that!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           We need your partnership to continue this ministry next year and as long as God provides! If you supported our efforts with donations last year, we are relying on your same amount of support to continue to be fully funded! My annual income is set at $60,000. My sister Rachael raised $7,925 for her income this year. Our 2024 ministry expenses were $11,725. This comes to a total annual budget of $79,650. Over the last 12 months, we brought in $79,747, which is $97 more than we needed. How Our Heavenly Father so perfectly provides for exactly what we need (Matthew 6:26-34)!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It is our hope, by the grace of God, to provide life-saving missionary work at the lowest budget we can, making every dollar that anyone gives worth every penny. We seek to trust in the provision of God Our Father through the generosity of Christians who desire to partner in our work. We want to be good stewards of anything you bless us with. We promise to never fundraise for the sake of fundraising. When we have enough donations saved to make sure we are funded for the time being, we will tell people to direct donations to other pro-life ministries that need the funding more than we do- just as we did earlier this year on our website.                                                                              With all that said, we need your continued support to keep saving babies! Tax-deductible, year-end donations are critical to make sure our apostolate’s needs are met going into next year so that we can direct our time to rescuing children outside of the facilities and sharing the Gospel of Life for the salvation of eternal souls! Please give generously if you can! Please pray for us! We need it!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            May Our Lord bless you this Christmas and New Year as you celebrate the Incarnation and Birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, who became a little preborn child to redeem us all! All for the greater glory of God!